A new law has been passed in South Korea to better shield teachers from upset kids.
For nine months, instructors from all over the country have been protesting and calling for greater rights in the classroom.
They claim that parents usually harass them in order to have them fired from their jobs after deliberately reporting them for child abuse.
Some claim that they have received criticism for reprimanding a student or reports of restraints on aggressive children.
A 2014 child security legislation that mandates that teachers accused of child maltreatment are automatically suspended was used by the teachers to accuse parents of abusing the law.
Teachers will not be fired immediately after a review of child abuse under the new policy, known as the Teacher Rights Restoration Bill, and additional research and evidence may be needed.
Teachers fighting lawsuits will also have access to financial assistance, and head teachers will have more responsibility to safeguard their team.
The demonstrations started following the death in July of a 23-year-old primary school teacher who had been handling parental problems.
Teachers claimed that because of the culture of malignant complaints, they were unable to instruct or discipline their students.
The new policy was praised by the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Unions, which stated that it would” develop the right to tell and guard students’ rights to learning.”
The union expressed its” deepest thanks” to the instructors who protested for eight days in a row, calling for better working conditions, and claimed that their efforts were to blame for today’s success.
The government and local officials had already implemented a number of actions in recent weeks to safeguard teachers and make it simpler for them to perform their duties, but none of them were legally binding.
Teachers are permitted to remove problematic students from the school and restrain them if needed, according to new government regulations that were released earlier this month.
Additionally, the Seoul Office of Education announced intentions this week to place a robot as the first line of defense for parent issues and to document all calls made to teachers by kids.
Yet, some educators have argued that the new regulations do not go far enough.
The innovative legislation, according to Kim Yong-seo, the head of the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Unions,” is a great move ahead in protecting teachers and students ,” but there are still areas that need to be improved.
He urged officials to change the Child Welfare Act, claiming that simply punishing students shouldn’t be considered baby misuse.
Some educators also want to punish families who falsely accuse them of abusing children.
The fresh law, according to 28-year-old teacher Kim Jin-seo, who first spoke to the BBC during one of the demonstrations, did not prevent false reports of child abuse because parents may continue to deliberately accuse teachers they did not like without consequences.
The tradition of parental abuse is seen in part as a result of South Korea’s hyper-competitive society. Scientific success is regarded as the best indicator of success, so students compete fiercely for the highest levels from a really young age to get into the top universities in the nation.
